Alex & Abby

Monday, February 27, 2017

margo: twelve months

Happy Birthday to our sweet, chatty, playful, steadfast, silly baby girl!! I cannot believe it's been an entire year since she was born. It blows my mind! Our sweet girl weighed in at 20 pounds, but we go to the doctor tomorrow so I'll update with the official stats then.

In the last month Margo has started chatting so much more. She says "dada" (dad), "ba-ba-ba"(all the time and when we listen to the Beach Boys Barbara Ann), "moo" (Moose), "oof-oof" (woof), "hi", "uh-oh", "what", "wow" and I'm sure more, but guess what she REFUSES to say?!? MAMA how hard is that? I'm definitely not upset...😫

She is a cruising and crawling machine! She doesn't seem interested in walking independently yet, but she is enjoying chasing Moose, opening cabinets and drawers and following us everywhere we go. This month we dropped her bedtime feeding and started her on whole (cow) milk. Her daily routine is virtually the same: wake up at 7am, nurse, breakfast, play and then nap time from 9-11am. Wake up at around 11am, lunch at 12, nap from 1-3pm and then play until dinner at 5pm and straight to bed at 7pm.

This year has been such a whirlwind and I don't think I can even begin to articulate how much having her has changed me. I love our sweet girl so much and I am so thankful for her every single day. She has shown me an incredible picture of God's grace and unconditional love and I feel so overwhelmingly thankful for that. I cannot wait to watch her grow up and get to see her personality come out more and more!

lately she has been waking up form her naps chatting and ready to play

and really happy!

sadly our girl got sick this month and had Influenza A and a double ear infection

watching the world go by

a girl walking her dog on an unseasonably warm February day

Friday, January 27, 2017

margo: eleven months

How is it possible that my chubby, babbling, crawling baby is eleven months old?! Margo is growing so quickly before our eyes. According to our scale she weighs almost 21 pounds!

Every day Margo does something new and it blows our minds, she is so stinkin' smart! Our standards were exceptionally low, since Moose was our standard and we've quickly learned that she is far superior to him in every way (but we still love you Moose). She is crawling, climbing, saying "da-da" and "uh-oh" and she is so curious. She follows us everywhere we go, beats on the bathroom door and pulls the shower curtain back to see who's showering and she loves Moose and taking his toys from him. She has also started cruising on furniture, giving kisses and is working on her two upper central incisors (she's had both lower centrals October).

Her schedule has changed a smidge in the last month. We have dropped the 11am and 3pm feedings and she is eating 3 meals/day and 1 snack after her nap at 3ish. She is still taking a morning nap from around 9-9:30 to 10:45-11am (it vary's day to day) and she is still consistent with her afternoon nap from 1-3pm. I will be ready to drop the morning nap so we can get out and do things during the morning, but in the mean time I'm enjoying the quiet productivity. She is a great eater and will eat anything as long as it isn't green. I am starting to sneak spinach and other green veggies into smoothies and anything else I can get her to eat. But, if you try to feed her a pea, she'll act as though you're poisoning her.

I'm in denial that next month she'll be a year old, but this month we're going to enjoy her as she is.

Monday, January 2, 2017

christmas 2016

We had such a great Christmas this year that I barely took any pictures! It was so fun to watch Margo play with her new toys and all of the wrapping paper and ribbons, but it was even more fun to spend a lot of time with family.

We spent Christmas Eve at Alex's parents with all of his siblings. Then we spent Christmas morning at our house- just the four of us (Moose counts) and Christmas afternoon we left for my parent's house. Alex went back to work Tuesday and I stayed in Salem for the week and so did Becky and her kids (Jared worked too). While we were there we played with all the Puricelli cousins, relaxed and hung out with no real plans or agenda.

My aunt Jeanne and uncle Bruce from Virginia came Tuesday and then on Friday Jim and his family's flight came in and Alex and Jared came back from working. Friday night all of the adults went to dinner at RARE in Mt. Vernon and it was delicious; Alex is still talking about how good his steak was!

We had a great holiday and I am so thankful that we had the opportunity to spend so much time with our families and relaxing. Now that the New Year is upon us, we'll have to see what 2017 has in store!

Margo wasn't thrilled...

...at all 😁

Grayson & Jansen playing in the best toy they could ask for- a big box

playing with her alligator

I got Alex a pizza peel and he got me a record player!

Margo was a great little helper

We couldn't forget Moose- he got a new antler, rope and of course a festive treat

We hope you had a Merry Christmas and that you will have a great New Year!

Saturday, December 31, 2016

2016: a year in review

2016 year has flown by, it seems unreal that we're just hours away from 2017! We have had such a wonderful, full year. Our more notable events of the year were Margo's early February arrival and getting used to having a new member in our little family, I was a bridesmaid in two weddings (both of my Amanda's got married this summer), we took a trip to Lake Michigan with my side of the family and we have spent a lot of time with friends in and around Edwardsville. It has been one of our lesser traveled years, but we have had so many great new adventures!

I cannot wait to see what 2017 has in store for us!

Happy New Year!